Off the Shelf: Jane Hilton’s Dead Eagle Trail

In the annals of photography, depictions of the world of cowboys are dominated by certain attractive clichés. Sprawling vistas, perhaps punctuated by the alien rock formations of Monument Valley. Dusty sunsets. Able men, high atop their steeds, lassoing things. But when the British photographer and filmmaker Jane Hilton was on assignment in the American West, she realized that something was being overlooked back at the ranch. How, she wondered, do twenty-first-century cowboys make their homes? In other words, what’s the cowboy approach to interior decorating? The result was her series of portraits of cowboys at home, “Dead Eagle Trail.”

One thing that struck Hilton about current cowboy quarters was how timeless they felt. Very few of her subjects, for example, had computers, and those that did often weren’t inclined to use them. “A lot of them have never seen a beach,” Hilton told me. “They don’t travel, because they can’t be away from their animals.” Being a cowboy, Hilton learned, is a very focussed life, chosen by men who value simplicity, solitude, and the old ways of doing things. One old thing Hilton’s subjects seemed to appreciate was the antique plate camera she used to take their portraits. “It’s under the old cloth, with film, obviously,” she said. “They loved the fact that I got this old camera out and fiddled about with it for a while. It was a really slow process.”

Hilton, who grew up in the suburbs of London, said she feels a strong westward pull. “As someone from a country that’s so tiny, where we’re all crammed in and there’s no room left, to come to America and see the big, wide open spaces always gives me goosebumps.” She’s been documenting American culture for more than twenty years; for the BBC, she made a ten-part film on Nevada brothels. “I keep thinking that I’m gonna go east and do a new book in Japan or something, but, fortunately, American culture is endless, and the space is so terrific. Just to cover it in a lifetime would be an achievement. So I don’t foresee myself coming out of the States for a while.”

Here’s a selection from “Dead Eagle Trail.” Captions are from the book.

Allan Randolph, Gun Collector, Beulah, Colorado. 2006.

“The elk went through the window because it couldn’t fit through the door.”